Friday, May 4, 2018

Nicolas Dumont, a driving instructor from France, emerged Thursday night as the chip leader in the EPT Monte Carlo Main Event and will thus be leading a pack of eight players into the final day of the prestigious tournament.

Day 5 of the Main Event kicked off with 16 survivors. Under original plans, they had to play until there were only six players left. However, as play extended into the early hours of Friday, there were eight contenders left at a single table. Organizers stopped the clock at that point to give those surviving enough time to rest and come up with a strategy for the final day of action.

It was an action-packed day at the host venue on Thursday as the chip lead jumped from one player to another over the course of play. While Dumont kept pretty quiet for the greater portion of the day, he ended up with the largest stack after six levels.

The Frenchman bagged and tagged 5.255 million last night, good for 66 big blinds. A three-way all-in confrontation helped him significantly build his solid stack. That key hand involved Sanli Saleh and German poker pro Ole Schemion, as well. Schemion was the chip leader at the time.

The confrontation ended with Saleh hitting the rail, Schemion dropping down to 40 big blinds, and Dumont tripling his chips. Schemion, previously dominating action at his table on Thursday, only went down after his clash with Dumont. The player ended the day as the short stack with 1.16 million, good for around 15 big blinds.

Other Finalists

Day 5 start-of-the-day chip leader Tomas Jozonis collected the second largest stack last night. The player had 3.8 million in his bag to secure a somewhat comfortable start to Day 6. Honglin Jiang ranked third in chips in the end-of-the-day chip counts chart with 2.985 million.

David Peters, who was an overnight chip leader a few days ago, was among the notables to make it into the final stage of the tournament, along with another seasoned poker pro – Finland’s Patrik Antonius. Antonius currently ranks fourth in chips with 2.975 million, while Peters holds the sixth largest stack with 2.4 million. Spain’s Javier Fernandez is standing between the above-mentioned two with a stack of 2.755 million. Hungary’s Krisztian Gyorgyi will start Day 6 action seventh in chips with 1.94 million.

Day 6 play will continue until there is a single player left at the final table of the host casino. The eight remaining hopefuls are contending for a first-place prize of €712,000, a tournament trophy, and a $30,000-worth Platinum Pass package for the PokerStars Players No-Limit Hold’em Championship. The event is set to take place on January 6-10, 2019 at Atlantis Hotel and Casino Resort in the Bahamas, which has been playing host to the PCA festival for a number of years now.